Laurence Heyworth collection of English religious manuscripts

The Laurence Heyworth Collection of English Religious Manuscripts consists of 73 volumes, mostly in English, containing sermons, sermon-notes, prayers, religious reflections, tracts, commonplace books, Biblical commentaries, and other religious and theological texts, mostly from the later seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.

Almost half of the volumes include sermons or sermon notes. Most authors are unidentified, but identified authors include Joseph Hallett, John Nicholas, Thomas Allen, Andrew Grey, John Henderson, and William Barton. Many sermons in these volumes are annotated with dates and/or place of preaching. Other notable items containing sermons include the volume in Box 27, which includes sermons on the execution of Charles I and the restoration of Charles II, and the volume in Box 49, containing sermons preached at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. Information on the Scottish Church and on the Covenanters can be found in Boxes 37 and 44.

Devotional works include John Ingram's Exposition of ye Catechisme; an English version of Pietro Matteo Petrucci's Lettere e trattati spirituali e mistici (Box 26); William Chilcot's Practical Treatise Concerning Evil Thoughts (Box 62); and an English version of Dominique Bonheur's Pensées chrétiennes titled Christian Thoughts for every Day of the Month (Box 56). There are a number of commonplace books, including several that contain religious and inspirational poetry, including the commonplace books by unidentified authors in Boxes 15 and 41 and the volume in Box 25, which was probably written by a chaplain in the English Army during the Williamite War. Box 61 contains The Life of Mr. De Marsay and his Wife, an extensive spiritual autobiography by a Quietist and mystic.

Several works attest to the post-Reformation survival of English Roman Catholicism, including a 17th century manuscript in Latin containing rules of conduct for monastic life (Box 2); the Latin Rite prayer book on parchment in Box 16, which may have belonged to the recusant Howard family; the Prayer to the Sacred Virgin Mother Against the Plague in Box 19; and the copy of a work on the English Benedictine Mission by the Benedictine Augustine Baker (Box 55). Volumes documenting the spiritual and devotional lives of women include A Comfortable Companion for Afflicted Souls, being a threefold discorse collected out of Scripture by a woman (Box 12); the notes by Sarah Meadows on methods of raising devout children, drawn from her own experience as a mother (Box 43); the commonplace book of Frances Drake (Box 89); and the spiritual biography True relation of my sister Sarah Kirshaw her life [and] death. Who dyed at Poppleton neare Yorke. Janr.20.1656. Ano aetatis 21.